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Capturing the dynamism of a new sporting era

Pioneering Swiss photographer Jules Decrauzat was fascinated by the new world of motor sport, amazed by the cars’ speed and power. The Swiss Photography Foundation is now showing a selection of his work that was developed over 100 years ago and has recently been rediscovered.

Decrauzat (1879-1960) had originally studied as a sculptor but as a young man working in Paris, he began to turn from photography to the new medium of photo journalism. Static, posed shots were not his thing – he wanted to capture scenes full of action and dynamic energy.

Motor sports and flying were particularly fascinating to him – they embodied an ambitious, exciting future world, a whole new time.

Decrauzat worked for the Geneva-based sports magazine, La Suisse Sportive, but he didn’t just take photos of pilots and race-car drivers. He also snapped cyclists, tennis players and boxers. The general public also made their way into his pictures, whether on dusty roadsides or set against a backdrop of snow-covered mountains.

The exhibitionExternal link includes photographs that were developed between 1910 and 1925. They belong to a collection of 1,250 glass negatives which were unearthed at Swiss photo agency Keystone last year.

(Photos: Jules Decrauzat, Text: Gaby Ochsenbein/swissinfo.ch)

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR